The Assassin Who Loved Me
by Rokesmith
Summary: When a young secretary meets a charming man driving a Lotus Seven, for one night her world is turned upside down. Inspired by Ian Fleming's 'The Spy Who Loved Me'. Contains adult concepts.
1. Part One: Youji Kudou

**The Assassin Who Loved Me**  
Rokesmith

**Disclaimer:** Weiss Kreuz, it's characters, indices etcetera belong to Takehito Koyasu, Kyoko Tsuchiya and Project Weiss. This fanfic was written for fun rather than profit and any resemblances to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. The story is inspired by Ian Fleming's _The Spy Who Loved Me_, which is property of Penguin.

**Author's Note:** This story is dedicated to Vivienne Michel, who showed the way, and Raven and Cat, who pointed out the hazards.

* * *

Part One: Youji Kudou

The first time I saw Youji Kudou, I was more interested in his car.

I was working in the reception of an auto shop that specialised in keeping old, mostly foreign, cars running. It was just like any other reception job, but I'd picked up a bit about cars while I was there too. I hadn't done anything that afternoon. It was a slow day and the boss hadn't come out of his office since lunch. At least I had Keiko to keep me company.

The sound of his car interrupted our conversation. Keiko was in the middle of telling me how she was sure her boyfriend was going to ask her to marry him soon, and I was telling her that twenty-three was too young to get married, and that she should have time to have some fun first. We both knew what a classic car sounded like by now, and this sound ticked all the boxes. It was louder than a normal engine, and like a chain of sounds rather than one indistinct rumble. It sounded like a really large kettle boiling.

I'd never seen a car like this one before. Most of the ones that came in were big heavy American or European cars made during the fifties and the sixties that didn't move very fast anymore because they weighed so much. This one was tiny, just a cabin, space for the engine and the wheels sticking out to the sides. I couldn't even see a roof.

The driver looked as good as his car. He was very tall, long blond hair and wearing sunglasses. He walked confidently out of the car into reception, pushed down his sunglasses and met my eyes. I knew that look, a lot of guys had tried it on me, but this one was doing it right, just the right amount of interest and charm. He gave Keiko a less direct, more honestly friendly smile, which she returned as quickly as she could then looked back down at the desk.

He leaned on the desk and looked straight into my eyes over his sunglasses. "Hi."

"Hi." I smiled back at him. "That's a beautiful car."

"You must see a lot of beautiful cars working here," he said.

I shrugged. "Nothing like that."

"It is special." He nodded. "A Lotus Seven Series Two from 1965. My uncle had it shipped all the way from England in kit form and then assembled it himself. He even had some improvements made to the engine that nearly doubled the power. He always loved it, drove it as often as he could. Of course it kept breaking down; he said it was designed by a genius who'd been assisted by madmen."

I giggled. "How'd you get it?"

"My uncle died." He said, then held up his hand before I could speak. "It's alright, everyone says sorry. I always loved the car, so he left it to me. For a while I just wanted to leave it in storage, but that's not what he wanted. So I'm going to enjoy it as much as he did, but I need to make sure everything's working as well as it can."

"Of course," I nodded. "Sasaki-san is in his office, if you'd like to talk to him personally."

"Thank you very much," he said. "I'm very grateful. My name is Youji Kudou."

"I'm Hanako," I told him as I rang up to Sasaki-san's office.

Sasaki-san sounded very enthusiastic about Youji and his car. He asked if it still had its original Ford side-valve engine, a question I had to repeat to Youji. Sasaki-san was even happier to hear that the whole car was still made entirely from Lotus components. Youji gave me a promising smile and went up to talk to my boss himself.

I smiled happily at Keiko. "That was different."

"Different?"

"You need to pay more attention," I told her. "Almost every guy who's come in here has told me all about his car like I'd know exactly what he's talking about just because I'm the receptionist here. A lot of them are really nice, but I keep turning them down because I don't want to spend an entire date listening to a guy talk about his car. I get enough of that at work. He didn't call the car 'she' either."

"At least you know Hideo wouldn't talk about cars," she said.

I sighed. She'd brought this up more than twenty times now. Hideo was a nice enough guy, he was the youngest of the three company accountants, and we both knew he liked me. Every time we bumped into each other he'd smile and tell me how nice I looked, he noticed when I changed my hair or bought a new dress, and he always asked me how my college studies were going. He hadn't asked me out yet, maybe he'd heard the sort of guys I'd dated and didn't think I'd say yes. I didn't think I would either.

"I bet Youji wouldn't talk about cars either," I responded.

Keiko looked a bit upset and went back to her work. I knew she liked the idea of me with Hideo. He sounded a lot like her boyfriend, who was a junior factory manager. I got the feeling that anything Hideo knew about me he had learned from her.

Ten minutes later, Youji came back down and leaned on the desk. "Your boss is nice. I'm very glad I found out about this place."

"How did you find out about us?" I asked.

"A friend of my uncle's told me about it," he said. "Tetsuya Abe. Do you know him?"

I looked over at Keiko, who shook her head. I just shrugged.

"Doesn't matter," Youji continued. "Anyway, he drives a 1960 Mercedes 220 SE, one of the last they ever made, he says, and told me this place would give the Seven all the care and attention it deserves."

"It certainly is a beautiful car," I said.

He smiled. "I'll take you for a drive some time."

"Sure." I handed him my card.

He took it, slipped into his front pocket, and handed over his own.

Then he bent close and whispered in my ear, "It's a shame that a girl called Hanako doesn't have a single petal to show for having such a pretty name."

Before I knew what he was doing, Youji had put his hand into his inside pocket and produced an orchid, just like a magician. He slipped the flower into my hair above my ear, then gave me one last smile and walked back towards his car. I'm glad he didn't look back or he'd have seen me blush.

I managed to wait until he had gotten back into the car and driven away before starting to giggle like a schoolgirl. I looked over at Keiko and saw she was laughing too. I pulled the orchid out of my hair, just to make sure it was real, and asked Keiko the same question she was asking me.

"Who keeps flowers in their coat?"

* * *

Nothing happened for the rest of the day, but after Keiko got to go back home to her boyfriend, I had to stay late. Every month one of us had to stay after work and make sure all the files were in the right order. This time it was my turn and I wanted to do it then so I could go out and have some fun on Friday. It's the kind of paperwork I've been able to do in my sleep since I was eighteen. I've done it so many times it puts me to sleep too, spending hours staring at every little piece of paper and making sure it was in the right place. I'd started at the bottom and gone all the way through the cabinets. It was getting late when I finally got to the end, but as I started to wake up I realised something weird. I went back through the files and checked twice, just to be sure, but it was still there. Or rather, it still wasn't there.

There wasn't a file on Tetsuya Abe.

I thought Youji had got the name wrong, but he'd sounded really sure about the name and the car. I made myself finish checking the other files, but I couldn't forget about the Abe file. Tonight it was my responsibility to make sure all the files were in order and I didn't want to risk a good job for five minutes of checking.

The first thing I did was look on the computer, but there wasn't an Abe file there either. We didn't have any customers with the first name Tetsuya either, or a 1960 Mercedes. Now I was starting to wonder about Youji, why he'd make it all up, but I wanted to do one last check, just to be sure. I think it was just to make sure Youji wasn't crazy.

I knocked on Sasaki-san's door, but there was no answer. It was unlocked, so I just went in. None of us were supposed to go into his office, but I just wanted a quick look into the filing cabinet in his office where he kept a backup copy of all of the files.

All I had to do was open the cabinet to find Tetsuya Abe's file. It wasn't even locked. It was so easy I wasn't sure what to do next. But when I looked inside it, there was just one piece of paper, and all it had on it was Abe's name, address, and a few details about his car. It was so strange, every other file I'd seen had at least one set of receipts in there for having something done to the car, even if it was just giving it a check over. I thought it might have been a mistake or something, but when I looked through the files, I found four more which were just the same, just a name, address and car details. None of them had been in the filing cabinet in the main office.

I didn't know what to do. I could have told Sasaki-san about this, but these were his files and he must have a reason for organising them like this, and I would have to admit I'd been in his office without his permission. I could have waited and asked Keiko, but if Sasaki-san found out she'd known and not told him, her job would be at risk too. Or I could do nothing, put all the files back, hope no one noticed and not tell anyone. I managed to convince myself that this was what was best, after all, this was Sasaki-san's business and it was not my place to question how he organised his files.

So I put the files back as carefully as I could and hoped that Sasaki-san wouldn't notice.

Then I heard footsteps in the office outside and the door started to open. I shoved the tray back into the cabinet and turned towards the door as Sasaki-san walked in.

"What are you doing in here?" He demanded.

"Sasaki-san." I bowed hurriedly, trying not to look frightened even though my heart was racing. "I was just organising the files and I saw your office door was open but there was no light inside so I came in to check if everything was alright. I'm very sorry."

Sasaki-san watched me, and I knew he knew I was lying. I was about to make some more excuses when he looked at the filing cabinet next to me. He strode forward and I had to jump back to get out of his way. The top draw wasn't quite closed, and I nearly burst into tears. He pulled the draw open so hard that it nearly came off the runners. The Tetsuya Abe file was sticking up at an angle. I hadn't had time to put it back properly.

"What did you see?" He asked.

"Nothing, Sasaki-san," I said.

"Tell me the truth!" He shouted.

"Please, Sasaki-san..." I whispered.

I was really frightened now. I tried to get past him, but he blocked my way. I didn't want anything except to be out of that office, so I tried to push past him. He caught my arms and he wasn't a big man but he held them so hard it hurt. I screamed for help and tried to pull free, but he held on tightly. I screamed again and kicked him as hard as I could. He grunted and shoved me backwards, and I fell.

I felt my head hit the desk on the way down. My head felt like it was on fire and then my skull exploded as I hit the floor. I wanted to scream but nothing made sense anymore. The pain only lasted a second, then I was glad to pass out.


	2. Part Two: Balinese

**The Assassin Who Loved Me  
**Rokesmith

* * *

Part Two: Balinese

The first thing I remember doing afterwards was vomiting. I would have screamed if I could. My head felt like it would explode as I threw up into a waste paper bin. Then I fell back on the floor, shivering and praying that if the pounding in my head didn't stop I could just pass out again.

I could have been lying there for hours before enough of the pain went away for me to think about what was happening. The fight with Sasaki-san felt like it had happened in a nightmare, but outside the pain in my head, my body trembled with fear because I knew I hadn't escaped.

My hands were tied. I could feel the pressure on my wrists and my hands were tingling. I could just feel a chord coming out of the knot towards the table my leg was pressing against. If I could I might have laughed to hide the fear. I felt so terrible I didn't know if I could move, let alone try to escape.

Then I realised I could hear voices. Finally I opened my eyes, but the light outside was blinding and I had to squeeze them closed again. I tried again and finally saw what was happening in the office.

I was lying in the corner of the main office and there were four men with me. Sasaki-san was standing by the door of his own office while another man paced up and down in front of him. On the other side of the office there were two other men sitting down, smoking cigarettes and talking to each other. One of them was big and the other one was small, just like in the movies.

"I don't understand why you kept the records, Sasaki-san," the pacing man said. "Didn't you realise that someone would find them sooner or later? You were very lucky it wasn't the police or someone you couldn't catch."

"I know, Yamato, I know!" Sasaki-san protested. "I shouldn't have kept them but I didn't think they could do any harm. But what are we going to do with her?"

"Simple," Yamato said. "We killed the owners of those cars you wanted, we kill her."

I flinched, shrinking away, trying desperately to escape. But there was nowhere to go, my back was against the wall and I couldn't do anything except pull against the modem cable tied around my wrists.

The big man looked over at me. "She's awake," he said.

"Yes, she is, Yo." Yamato turned around.

"She's pretty." The small one smiled.

"She's a receptionist, Spaatan," Yamato said. "All receptionists are pretty."

He was looking at me like I wasn't there. As far as he was concerned, I could have been a piece of furniture, or the photocopier. He was going to kill me, and he'd do it without being any more interested than if he was turning off a light switch.

"What will you do with her?" Sasaki-san asked.

"What you pay me for, Sasaki-san" Yamato replied. "She's a pretty young girl, and bad things do happen to pretty young girls. Tomorrow morning she'll be found near her home with her throat slit. And just to throw the police off she should probably have been sexually assaulted as well."

I wanted to be sick again. He was just standing there, saying things that didn't seem real to me. It was like I was watching it all from outside while my body was frozen stiff.

"Thanks, boss." Spaatan grinned.

Yamato nodded. "Just remember not to let her bite you and tie her hands behind her back. I don't want any traces under her nails. And for god's sake, Spaatan use a condom. Don't make it that easy for the cops to trace you."

"I can drive," Yo said. "I'll make sure he remembers."

Spaatan knelt next to me. "You don't know what you're missing."

He put his hand on my leg. I just sat there, still frozen, feeling him touching me through my tights. He moved his hand up slowly, pressing gently against my thigh. I didn't look at his face, I just watched his fingers crawling across my skin, feeling nothing at all.

Then he reached the bottom of my skirt and started pushing it upwards, and I knew this was real and that it wouldn't stop. I screamed, kicking desperately, pushing myself backwards against the wall and attacking him in a frenzy that didn't stop until I couldn't feel him near me anymore. Then I stopped, suddenly exhausted, curled up against the wall with my knees pulled up against my chest, held by my bound hands. Spaatan was lying on his back on the floor, I realised I'd hit him in the arm and one of my heels had caught his cheek, scratching half way across his face.

Yo helped him up. "I don't think that was fun," he said.

The other man shoved him away. "Stupid bitch!" He shouted.

He pulled a knife from his pocket, but I didn't care anymore. If he killed me I wouldn't have to feel him touch me.

"Stop!" Sasaki-san caught his arm. "Please. Not here."

"He's right," Yamato said. "Do whatever you want to her but take it somewhere else."

Spaatan stood up and shoved Sasaki-san away. Then he kicked me in the stomach. I couldn't scream, for a second I couldn't even breathe. I fell on my face, curled up in a ball, waiting for the next blow, but it never came. I heard a crash, but felt nothing. Then I heard something else, alarmed voices and footsteps.

I opened my eyes, hoping for rescue, but I just saw the four men standing in a semicircle in the middle of the room. Then I looked behind me and saw that the office door was swinging on its hinges. There was no one in the doorway, just the pitch black stairwell.

Yamato gestured at Yo and then at the door. Yo went over and looked out of the door into the darkness. Then he was gone. One second he was in the doorway and the next second he wasn't. There was just a gasp and a thud in the darkness outside.

"What the hell?"

Sasaki-san turned and ran into his office. Then something moved very quickly in the doorway and suddenly the lights went out. I couldn't see a thing, I could only hear the chaos in the darkness around me, shouts, yells, crunches and crashes. And then two explosions, a few seconds apart. In between I heard glass shattering and the room was suddenly cold.

Then there was silence. All I could hear was my heartbeat and breathing, somewhere between gasps and sobs. Then the lights came back on again. Yo was standing in the doorway next to the switch, holding his head. Spaatan was slowly getting to his feet. Yamato was standing by the frame of the broken window on the other side of the room. Sasaki-san leant against the door of his office with a revolver in his hands. There was a body in the middle of the room, a man with a long blue coat with a white cross on the sleeve. I crawled forward as far as I could to see who it was, but I nearly cried out when I saw his face.

It was Youji.

Behind me, Yamato was arguing with Sasaki-san while Yo and Spaatan talked, but I couldn't hear them. All I could see was Youji's face, lying still on the floor with his eyes closed, his sunglasses on the ground beside him. I tried so hard not to cry, but I couldn't stop myself now. I just let the tears come. He'd tried to save me. I'd never know why or what he was doing here tonight but I knew he'd tried to save me from them. He'd died for me.

Yamato ignored me. "Now we've got two bodies to dump," he said. "Drop him off the bridge on your way to get rid of her. Get rid of the gun too. Sasaki-san, wreck your office and claim vandals did it. And learn to use a pistol properly if you want to get another one."

"What if someone heard the shots?" Yo asked.

"Then we'll buy them off like we always do," Yamato said. "Get to work."

I heard Spaatan step over Youji and looked up as he pulled me to my feet. He smiled at me. Then there was a strange sound and I saw something like a silver string around his neck that hadn't been there before.

What happened next happened so fast.

Spaatan went backwards, pulled off his feet and falling out of control towards the window. He went through it without slowing down. I'd never head a man scream before. Then Youji was on his feet and jumping towards the light switch as Yo dived at him. The explosions of the revolver deafened me as I fell back into the corner. Yo and Youji hit the ground, but Youji got up and Yo didn't. Another explosion as Youji ran towards Yamato. Yamato picked up a knife and stabbed at Youji, but Youji caught his arm. They held onto each other, the knife in between them, pointing at Youji's stomach. I screamed and kicked Yamato in the ankle. Youji pulled him sideways and they both fell and rolled over a table out of sight. I waited, not taking my eyes off the table, for an eternity. Then Youji stood up from behind it. There was one more explosion and I saw hole torn in the wall, but Youji didn't even flinch.

He turned and looked straight at me. "Stay there."

Then he walked around the desk towards Sasaki-san. Sasaki-san held the revolver in both hands but didn't fire as Youji got closer. Then he and Youji were only an arm's length apart he raised the gun and pointed it at Youji's face and pulled the trigger. I almost screamed, it happened so fast, but there was no sound at all. Just a click.

"That's a Smith and Wesson," Youji said. "And you've had your six."

He moved so fast. In a flash there was a thin wire wrapped around Sasaki-san's neck, pulling him against Youji. He dropped his gun as Youji held him tightly. Youji looked over at me, and it was like he was a different man.

"She shouldn't have to see this," he said to Sasaki-san.

He pushed Sasaki-san through the door into the private office and the door closed behind them. I was alone in an empty, cold office with two dead men. I could only hear the wind outside the window and my own heartbeat. Then I heard something else. Under the table next to me was a headset, and I could hear a faint voice coming out of it.

"Balinese?" said the static. "Balinese, come in! Youji-kun, what's happening?"

Suddenly, Youji was standing next to me, picking up the headset. "I'm fine, Bombay. Mission completed. I'll meet you in downstairs."

He cut the modem cord around my wrists and helped me up, like a knight in a fairy tale except he winced slightly. He smiled at me, and it was the smile of the man who'd given me a flower that morning. He pulled off one of his gloves, took my hand and led me downstairs into the office car park where his Seven was waiting.

"I'll be back in a minute," he said, giving me another smile that told me everything was going to be alright.

He left me in the passenger seat and walked towards the entrance. There were three people waiting for him, a tall man in a long dark coat, a short blond boy and a very ordinary young man. I was expecting him to talk to the tall one, but he turned to the boy instead, talking for several minutes before gesturing back towards me.

I only heard one bit of the conversation, an exclamation from the young man, "Mary Mother of God, Kudou, you're not James fucking Bond!"

That made me laugh. I felt like I had finally woken up from the nightmare. Nothing in the last hour had really happened. Except that I could still feel the ache of the bruise on the back of my head and Youji was still there. I don't even remember when the laughter turned into tears and I curled up on the seat like a child, with all my fear, frustration, anger and relief flooding out of me. Afterwards I sat very still, feeling completely drained. I was barely aware of the wind around me as Youji started the car and drove it into the night, looking at me occasionally but not speaking.

It was ten minutes before I finally asked, "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere safe for the night," Youji said. "Just in case. It's just a hotel I know. You'll like the view. You will be safe, Hanako, I promise. No one will know you were here tonight."

"Who are you?" I asked. "Why were you watching Sasaki-san? Who were your friends? Why did they call you Balinese?"

Youji shook his head. "It's better if you don't know. Tell me about you."

I started talking. I told him about my parents, about my politics course, about my friends. I told him about long nights unwinding from work and study with Keiko and the other girls from college and the office. I even told him about Hideo and his nervous attempts at flirting. I didn't stop talking until we arrived at the hotel, suddenly embarrassed that I'd told him so much about myself, but Youji was still listening as he let me into the big expensive room he'd rented for the night. I suddenly had the stupid thought that I wasn't the first girl he'd brought there.

The view was enough to make me shut up. I could see the whole of Tokyo from the window, a pattern made up of millions of tiny lights hovering in the darkness. I stood by the window and looked out at the lights from Tokyo Tower and the Rainbow Bridge shining in the water of the bay.

I turned around when I heard a sharp hiss of pain from behind me. Youji had taken off his coat and was slowly removing a layer of body armour. He started taking off the shirt underneath it and flinched again. I hurried over and helped him, lifting the shirt over his head. His skin was quite pale, his body was perfectly toned as I'd known it would be, but there was a huge red bruise on his chest at the level of his elbow. The body armour, I realised, had stopped one of Sasaki-san's bullets from killing him.

He took a small first aid kit from one of his coat's inside pockets and talked me through applying a pad and bandaging him. I rested against him afterwards, shivering, afraid I was going to cry again. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tightly.

"You're safe," he whispered. "It's all going to be alright."

I put my hands on the back of his neck, pulled his head down and kissed him. An instant of hesitation, and then he kissed me too. We held each other, forgetting everything that had happened that night, becoming nothing more than a man and a woman sharing themselves with each other. I felt his fingers on the buttons of my blouse and then his hands on my skin. We made our way from the window to the bed, undressing each other as we went. I pushed him down carefully lay on top of him. It was slow and gentle, caresses and warmth, whispers and smiles. And at the end, I bent low and held him tightly, shuddering and crying his name as he gasped mine.

Then I lay curled up against him, feeling nothing but warmth and fading bliss, listening to him breathing as we both drifted into a sleep that didn't frighten me anymore.

* * *

Before I opened my eyes, I knew he was gone.

I hadn't expected him to be there. Like a dream, he couldn't stay till morning. It was better this way, I knew. I didn't know who Youji really was or what he did, but he hadn't told me because he wanted to protect me, and he'd left for the same reason. I knew he'd killed those men last night, and I knew it wasn't the first time he had done it. But he'd risked his life to save mine and last night he'd made love to me as if he were any other man. He was part of a world I'd seen for a night but he didn't want me to become part of. I'm so grateful to him for that.

And Youji left me a parting gift. On the pillow next to me I found a single red rose, which made me smile. There was a note with it. Two simple words: _marry him_. I knew what he meant.

I never saw him again. Every now and then I wonder what happened to him. He was a killer who had saved my life, a murderer who had searched for peace in my arms as much as I had in his. He left me with nothing but memories, and though I'm slowly forgetting the moments, I still remember the man and what he did for me.

Youji Kudou loved me for one night, but when Hideo finally asked me out, I accepted, and I know that he will love me for the rest of my life.


End file.
